Nairobi, 2nd October 2025 – Nairobi is set to host a historic gathering later this month as Africa’s first reparations festival takes place on 22nd and 23rd October at Entim Sidai Wellness Sanctuary. The event, dubbed WAKATI WETU: It’s Our Time – To Resist, Repair and Reclaim, will bring together hundreds of artists, musicians, policymakers, philanthropists, activists, and cultural educators to engage in dialogue and strategy on reparatory justice.
Over two days, participants will delve into issues spanning climate justice, economic justice, historical injustices, and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Organisers say the festival aims to reclaim history, resist injustice, and repair Africa’s future by positioning reparations as a continental and global conversation.
“This festival is about elevating and socialising the discourse on reparatory justice in Africa,” said Dr. Liliane Umubyeyi, Co-Founder of the African Futures Lab (AFaLab), one of the convening organisations. “Climate change, debt crisis, forced migration, and widening inequalities are not disconnected phenomena; they are contemporary expressions of a global system of racial domination that remains structurally intact.”
The festival aligns with the African Union’s (AU) 2025 theme, the Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent, which was declared earlier this year by the AU Assembly of Heads of State. The AU has since extended this theme into a Decade of Reparations (2026–2036), a landmark decision reflecting growing consensus on the urgency of reparatory justice across the continent.
Mr. William Carew, Head of Secretariat of the African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), hailed the festival as a groundbreaking platform. “The Wakati Wetu festival is unprecedented because it brings together policymakers, civil society groups, cultural actors, and ordinary people in a way that is both transformative and inclusive. It is a testament to the AU’s determination to bring citizens along on our collective journey to achieve the Africa we want.”
The festival has been jointly organised by five organisations across Africa and the diaspora, marking the beginning of what is intended to be a series of such gatherings over the next decade. Organisers hope it will broaden public understanding of reparations and mobilise civil society to push for accountability, healing, and justice.
“This year’s event is just the beginning,” Dr. Umubyeyi added. “The campaign for justice, healing, and accountability will continue until it is resolved. We are calling on all Africans and people of African descent to join us in charting a path towards a continent that is free from racial and colonial entrapments.”
As Africa’s first reparations festival, Wakati Wetu is expected to not only spark critical debate but also galvanise a movement that reimagines Africa’s future through justice, unity, and repair.
